Maxxim Consulting, the consultancy firm which advises companies on organisational design and change, has today released new findings from its new White Paper “The Future of the Corporate Centre”.
The research paper reveals that, of the 20 Chief Executives who had their organisations benchmarked for the study, nearly a third (29%) believe that HR’s presence in Head Office should be as a small, focused team concentrating on HR strategy.
Claire Arnold, Partner at Maxxim Consulting said:
“Nearly a third of the CEOs we interviewed want the role of HR at Head Office to become much more focused. What we’ve got now is an HR culture that focuses on the tactical rather than the strategic – and therefore isn’t seen to add value.
“This needs to change so that HR is focused on the Big Picture items – talent management, succession planning, senior hires and so on.”
Other significant findings of the research include:
38% of CEOs think that getting the right number of people Head Office is easy – what’s difficult is getting their roles right;
52% of CEOs only review the number of people working at Head Office when something changes – and they know they need to review their Head Office more often;
24% of CEOs know that their Head Office is not as streamlined as it should be;
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Claire Arnold, Partner at Maxxim Consulting, said:
“Our study shows that at most UK corporate headquarters, there are strategic decisions for HR to take – but they’re not taking them because they’re too bogged-down in day-to-day work. This needs to change if HR is to retain a key role in Britain’s boardrooms.”
